Venice & War
by Boop-Ba-Doop
Summary: Years after Hide's demise, Kaneki reflects in a shelter in Venice in a rare moment of peace before the sirens of war call once more and he fights again on the front lines.
**A/N: Oh God, what have I done?!**

 ** _Venice:_** **City in northeastern Italy, built on 118 islets within a lagoon in the Gulf of Venice, an arm of the Adriatic Sea.**

 ** _War:_** **a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country.**

 **~()~()~()~**

Kaneki breathed out slowly, gazing sightlessly into the Grand Canal from his perch on the stone bridge. He had eaten recently, two days ago- or was it longer? It was all a blur to the one-eyed ghoul. He missed... a lot, actually. He missed Japan. He missed Touka, Hinami too. He missed Nishiki and Kimi. He wouldn't have minded seeing Tsukiyama, either. But most of all...

Hide.

Gods, he missed Hide.

It had been a long number of years since... _then_. The war between human and ghoul had become even larger and was now on an international scale. It also turned out that some notes on the surgery that changed him from human to ghoul had reached another, different, ghoul doctor. And now... let's just say a lot of people would rather commit suicide than get captured by ghoul nowadays.

Kaneki absently cracked his fingers as he turned away from the glistening waters of one of the most well-known landmarks in Venice and hopped from the side of the bridge to the middle. The white-haired young man ( _could ghouls even be called 'men'? Or 'women'? Or 'children' or-_ ) ambled slowly to a grubby-looking alleyway. Barely a few minutes into the back street, Kaneki came to a standstill and knocked lightly on a fairly unremarkable door, exactly the same as any other in the area.

Immediately the door opened and let him in. The inside was larger than it looked- and for good reason. Both houses next to it and the ones behind it were connected. The walls had been broken down and used as kindling long ago. No one payed him much mind, much too exhausted or depressed to even bat a eye as he passed; though a lady and what appeared to be her daughter, but was really her younger sister, nodded at him.

Her name was Hisako and her little sister was Rin. Rin looked like a three-year old due to stunted growth and lack of food, but she was in actual fact around seven years old and didn't truly understand what was going on. However, Hisako was, while still young, old enough to fight on the front lines and hunt for food and _kill_. She was fifteen. Even at her age, the years of fighting had piled up, aging her youthful features and darkening her previously vibrant eyes.

Kaneki nodded back, politely, before disappearing up the stairs to 'his' room. It was a room that had already been small before it had been crudely split into four by a couple of curtains on a couple of rails. It could be worse and he hadn't dared to complain when he knew what others had to suffer through.

He lay down on his wonderfully crafted bed (a single duvet on the floor) but didn't bother to pull up his so-incredibly-comfy blanket (a thin, scratchy thing that would barely make any difference if he were cold).

He missed the past. He missed being human and going to class and reading books and listening to music and... hanging out with Hide, just being friends as they had been before the huge mess. He felt his eyes begin to sting but he simply closed them, took a few unsteady breaths and opened them again, now dry. He was one of the more experienced soldiers ( _experienced?! He was barely twenty-six! Or was he a bit older...?_ ) and, as such, he had to be strong for everyone else. He had no doubts that no one would care if he cried or showed any kind of weakness, but he wouldn't. He knew full well that it would be good for him, he hadn't felt anything properly since Hide- since _then_. But he _wouldn't_. He simply, wouldn't. He had to be strong for everyone. He _had_ to.

( _Or maybe he was just lying to himself, goodness knows he was a natural at it by now_ )

So, instead, Kaneki rolled on to his side and fell asleep. It was sadly easy for him to fall asleep nowadays- always tense, always fighting, always hunting- rarely getting a chance to rest at all, he took it gratefully when and where he could, though he preferred coming back to a shelter. He was a light sleeper, as were all the other ghouls, so falling asleep quickly didn't matter as long as he could get up fast.

And so, at the end of another stressful, gore-filled and completely and utterly soul-shattering day, Kaneki fell into the cold, dark abyss and into the clutches of his victims, his friends and...

His nightmares.

 **~()~()~()~  
** Kaneki Ken was 20 when his best friend died in his arms-  
 _Kaneki Ken was an infant when his mother first started to abuse him-  
_ **Kaneki Ken was 18 when he went on a date with Rize-  
** ** _Kaneki Ken was 19 when he was tortured by Jason-_**

Ja **so** n _sev_ **er** _ed_ hi **s Ac** hi _l_ **l** e _s'_ h **ee** l,  
 **Ri** z **e t** ri **ed** _t_ o d **e** v _our_ **h** im,  
 _K_ **a** ne _ki_ w _a_ **tched** _a_ **D** ov _e m_ **ur** der _H_ **in** a _mi_ ,  
 _He_ s **ubt** ra _cte_ **d se** _v_ **e** n _f_ **ro** m o **ne t** ho **us** _and,_  
Hi **s m** o _th_ er _h_ **it** _hi_ **m** ,  
 **H** _id_ **e smil** **e** d b **l** _oo_ d **il** _y a_ n _d_ s **ai** d " _Let's go home,_ "  
 _K_ ane _ki_ **d** **e** v _our_ **ed Jas** on,  
 **Kan** e _ki_ **fou** nd T **o** _u_ k **a'** _s c_ or **ps** e,  
 **Ka** ne **ki n** _e_ arl _y_ **lo** _s_ **t h** is **h** um **an** i _ty,_  
 _Ka_ **ne** ki _screamed._

 **~()~()~()~**

Kaneki woke up suddenly. He did not scream. He was used to it.

Kaneki did not move. He stared blankly at the ceiling. Sounds... the cracking of bone, the squelching of the human body being eaten, the screams of his victims, his screams. Hide's voice. Images flashed across his vision- Touka's broken body, the remains of Nishiki and Kimi, intertwined even in death, the bodies of those he slaughtered for food, the ghouls that never made it. Hide's still smiling face, strange on his cold, lifeless body. The smells of burnt flesh, blood and rotting meat.

The taste of iron in his mouth.

It was akin to a broken record, playing over and over and over and over and-

The sounds surrounded him like stereo, the visions clouded his unseeing eyes, phantom pains racing along his body, smells and tastes assaulting his senses.

Kaneki did not make a sound as he cried for the first time in years.


End file.
